I trashed the email…but held onto the pullout as a prime example of gobbledygook (defined here).

I think they mean that they want to help me work out a plan to keep bad things from happening to my business. Maybe?

Perhaps you can come up with a better translation. Perhaps not.

Either way, writing like this is a guarantee that I’ll never have anything to do with this company. Stilted, cluttered, gobbledygookian language like this is a sure sign of people who can’t think clearly. And if I want help with my business, I want it to come from people who can think clearly.

What do you do with that lead photo? What if it’s a vertical shot? Or horizontal? How are you gonna run the story with it? Should there be a graphic? An infobox? A logo?

Your plan need not be complex. It need not attempt to answer all the questions. It really can’t. But having a selection of pre-designed models to go from would help.

How about a plan for design consistency? Creating a design style guide’s a good place to start.

Why not take advantage of your software? InDesign style sheets, “next” styles and nested styles can help your consistency and efficiency when designing pages. And InDesign libraries and templates are a gift to designers when they need to place standing design elements into their pages.

It’s not difficult to create a solid design plan. Of course, it takes some time and effort.